Brioude - Saint-Julien

The Saint-Julien basilica in Brioude was built between 1100 and 1180 as a collegiate church. The architectural structure is influenced by large Romanesque churches such as "Notre-Dame-Du-Port" in Clermont-Ferrand (70 km to the north) or "Saint-Austremoine" in Issoire (30 km to the north), which were planned and built in the same century. The building of the former abbey was demolished after the French Revolution, but the structure of the church (although it has been remodelled in some places over the centuries) is still largely intact.

Brioude was a place of pilgrimage very early on, as there was already a "martyrion" over the tomb of St Julien in the 4th century. This building was replaced by an early basilica, which was visited and described by Gregory of Tours (538-594), who wrote about an annual pilgrimage from Avernis (= Clermont-Ferrand) to Brioude. Later, this was a stopover for pilgrims on the way to Santiago, just two days (60 km) from Le Puy (Via Podensis).

A wall painting in the side apse

As I've already uploaded so many photos from here, I've kept it a little shorter this time